BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 7. This week, Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov announced that the transit of Kazakh oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline from April through September amounted to 609,000 tons.
Some 493,000 tons of crude oil were shipped from the Ceyhan port to world markets, he said.
As the minister noted, by the end of the year, the total volume of transit of Kazakh oil via the BTC will reach 1.1 million tons.
Furthermore, on October 3, gas prices in Bulgaria once again experienced a decline, and this can be attributed to the continued supplies from Azerbaijan.
The pricing mix for October encompasses the entire contract volume of Azerbaijani natural gas supplied through the Bulgaria-Greece interconnector (IGB). These volumes account for 52 percent of the monthly consumption and play a pivotal role in achieving favorable gas prices.
Meanwhile, according to the latest statistics published, in July 2023, Azerbaijan significantly boosted its natural gas exports to Türkiye, marking a notable increase of 24.44 percent compared to the same period in 2022.
The data from Turkish Energy Markets Regulatory Authority (EPDK) shows that Azerbaijan's gas exports to Türkiye rose from 709.97 million cubic meters to 883.52 million cubic meters.
This surge in exports secured Azerbaijan the second position in terms of natural gas exports to Türkiye during the specified reporting period.
In the meantime, Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban ahead of an unofficial meeting of EU leaders in Granada, Spain, said that Azerbaijan is strategically important for the energy independence of the EU.
"Azerbaijan is a key country; without Azerbaijan, we cannot achieve energy independence," Orban stated.
In this regard, it is necessary to remind that the largest Hungarian wholesale natural gas trader, MVM CEEnergy, and SOCAR signed a contract on June 2 to transport 100 million cubic meters of gas, with deliveries set to begin in the fourth quarter of 2023.
This week, Azerbaijan's State Oil Company (SOCAR) offered Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) LNG supplies.
PLL encountered a lukewarm response in the bidding process for two spot LNG cargoes, with just three bids received on Wednesday. The submitted bids reflected prices ranging from $15.97 to $19.39 per MMBtu.
SOCAR had offered PLL an LNG cargo priced just below the $15.97 bid submitted by Vitol, a competing bidder. This decision by PLL marks a strategy to acquire LNG from Vitol at the mentioned rate, with the intention to procure a separate LNG shipment from SOCAR at a rate that is marginally lower than Vitol's bid. This approach was not initially part of the bid selection process.
Pakistan and Azerbaijan signed an agreement back in July 2023 on LNG transportation.